Hey. Well here I am thoroughly worn out yet unable to wind down totally. Thought I was use this last energy to let you know how things went today.
Today was our Fifth Annual Gigantic Christmas Fiesta in the Brechas del Mirador Church Building. I know I say this all of the time and I hope ya’ll never get bored of hearing it, but once again I stand in awe of the goodness of Yahweh!
Everything went just wonderfully and a joyous time was had for all but mostly by all of the little ones to whom the party was directed. We started at about 9am with two of those big bouncy houses for the kids to jump in. Then we were blessed by a visit from a Mexican drama team who presented the Christmas Story in Spanish and Mixteco alto which was very awesome. Frank led all of the children in a prayer of thanksgiving and worship and I was not the only one with tears on my cheeks. “Our kids” , the ones from the work camp by the mission home were just so attentive and prayed loudly and just generally showed out the rest of the supposedly more “sophisticated” children in attendance, I was so proud of how much they have learned.
THEN we proceeded to dserve lunch to some 172 people!!!! This in itself was truly miraculous. We had been expecting and prepared for 150 and I thought that we had overestimated but no……..
We rounded off the day with games and 4 piñatas. Every one received a new toy. Last Friday we had still received not even one donation and were planning on just giving out candy bags and chicharrones. BUT, on Monday two guys from the Sacramento area who came to work on the classroom roof showed up with literally one truckload of brand new toys and Tuesday a church from Arizona brought down 24 shoeboxes stuffed with new toys, clothes and candies. We are awed and overwhelmed again at the generosity and thoughtfulness of my fellow countrymen-Americans. So much thought obviously went into these gifts that I just can’t get over it-makes me glad to be able to say I am an American really. So from two sources otherwise totally unknown to me before this week the Lord made awesome Provision flow. EVERY child received a toy and candy bag and more PLUS when it was all over we were able to send down the remnant of gifts (about 40 all together) and candy bags to
Harvest of Faith Mission Maneadero which is the other little church we are covering. We were also able to bless them with three stuffed piñatas for their Christmas Cantata which is tomorrow night! The young Pastor and his wife were just so shocked and excited to get this blessing, I think it was beyond their wildest expectations and a real faith booster for them. I am so happy to know that all of the fun and blessings of today will also be repeated at that church tomorrow……..hopefully another 40 or so people will experience the Kingdom through their event and know how the Lord loves them!
So, again I am in awe. We had plenty of help, the Church really came through (both of them) and the whole thing was actually almost flawless-praise the LORD.
It was a lot of work preparing for it, but definitely worth it as i watched the children’s big eyes as they received over and over and over again today, it was just so sweet.
Can’t help but keep thanking the Lord for enabling us to give so much away. It is just so much fun to give stuff away you know and to be able to touch the lives of children (and mothers) whose lives are so hard so difficult makes me so darn satisfied……..
We have come a long way in the 12 years since we arrived in this country with literally nothing, imagine to go from barely being able to get enough to eat ourselves to being in a place where the Lord funnels through us a Christmas blessing to 170 people? It’s awesome and it is all God and we just thank Him for the chance to be His Hands and his Mouth today.
Thank so much to everyone back there who keep us in operation with their financial gifts. This blessing is every bit as much yours as it is ours!
Much Love and Merry Christmas-
Detra and Francisco

Pray Up Your Immune System!
1 Corinthians 14:4
4He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself…

Many Charismatics believe that when you speak in tongues, you edify or build up your spirit man. Well, that is only one-third true. The Bible does not say that the speaker edifies his spirit. No, it says that the speaker “edifies himself”. This means his entire self — spirit, soul and body. So he who speaks in tongues builds up his spirit, soul and body.

Does this include building up your immune system? Yes, it does! Brain specialists at Oral Roberts University’s hospital found out through research and testing that when a person prays in tongues, his brain releases two chemicals that are directed to his immune system, giving it a 35 to 40 per cent boost. Interestingly, these secretions are triggered by a part of our brain that has no other apparent activity and which is activated only when we pray in tongues.

Now, your immune system is your first line of defense against diseases. During the SARS outbreak in Singapore in 2003, not everyone who had the disease died. Only those whose immune systems were weak succumbed to the disease and died. Therefore, many people resorted to vitamins and herbs to boost their immune systems.

A 74-year-old church member decided to build up his immune system against more heart problems. Two of his arteries were 70 per cent blocked and five smaller vessels were 80 per cent blocked. So during a church service, when I asked those who wanted to be healed of heart problems to stand up, he stood up, placed his hand over his heart and prayed in tongues.

He shared that at that moment, he believed that the Holy Spirit touched him and he became a different person. When he went for his medical check-up, his surgeon found that all the blockages in his blood vessels were gone! Even a scheduled heart-related operation was cancelled as there was no longer any necessity for it. Indeed, he was a different person. He literally had a change of heart, a new heart from God!

Beloved, you may not have a heart condition, but you can still pray in tongues and pray up your immune system!

Dear Ones,

Hope this finds ya’ll snuggled up, keeping warm………………..

We are resting up a little from some rather big doings. As you know weather in Baja is either gorgeous or a non-issue for the most part , but El Nino visited us on Monday and things are still a mess! The rain came down in a constant whirlwind for literally hours, knocking down power poles (7 on the dirt road alone!) leaving hot wires strewn across it and effectively knocking out incoming vehicular traffic till yesterday afternoon. Frank had to leave the truck at the bottom overnight as the other road up was washed out totally. The wind blew the roof clean off of Frank’s generator shed, water came in and that night we were without electricity totally. Much f the sandpaper on our roof(house) came off in small pieces and it must be replaced before more rains come and fall directly onto the wood of the subroof. We need to believe Yahweh for about 24 rolls of that darn paper. Remember Walter??(the cabbage pastor) well, the entire roof blew off of his
building and into the highway…………Frank and Marcial spent the last 24 hours moving their stuff out of what is left of their building.
I went into t Ensenada to get supplies today and had a harrowing experience. I was stopped by the State Police (coming home) who were doing “random” stops to check for drugs, guns and fugitives. It scared the hell out of me. My hands are literally still not so steady. I was stopped by a truck full of 8 cops in riot gear wearing their ski masks (why? I do not know.) They were not nice at all, not friendly, not chatty. They had me step onto the side of the road (main road in Maneadero) lean up against their truck and they proceeded to frisk me with my hands over my head- they put their hands inside the waistband of my pants, made me remove my shoes etc. It was the most thorough search I have ever had and totally uncalled for in a random stop. They acted as if I was a real threat to them. It lasted about 45 minutes. They ripped the inside of the truck apart, dumped my purse and wallet, dumped my groceries all out in the truck bed. Obviously they do not
help you put it back together so I just drove home with crap rolling all over
the place. Somebody from the little store who saw the whole thing came over to see if I was okay to drive after the cops left. He said that he had watched them do the same thing to 4 other people today and he was scared himself just being in close proximity.I have been angry and afraid since but mostly just grateful that it is over and nothing worse happened.
Things are unfortunately getting worse here. I have hesitated to say much of it to you for fear of stressing you out, but it is not so good. And, they just announced last week that we are getting an additional 1,000 “officials” (officers and soldiers) here in Baja Norte. Supposedly it is to subdue the cartels, but honestly there just is not THAT much cartel action going on and therefore the soldiers and cops are bored and frustrated and feel the need to make things happen.
This is my second time being stopped in three weeks and Frank was stopped twice in ONE DAY last week. It was the sldiers who stopped me the other time and it wasn’t as invasive but still scary. Soldiers invaded Rancho Tamayo about 6 weeks ago for the SECOND time (our neighbors down on the dirt road where the dairy cows are)- busted in in the middle of the night and literally gave old Senora Tamayo a heart attack. She had to be rushed to the hospital. And that is it. they just bust in, wreck everything and leave and if they find nothing illegal, as in this case both times-oh well too bad for the resident. The news tells everyone this is the price we must pay for security. Just a real live reminder that alice ain’t in Wonderland any longer…..
But, praise the Lord all is well. Thank you for the great offering. It sure felt good to recieve it as things were on the desperate side, but as usual, Yahweh is ON TIME.

Much Love,
sd